The Last of Us Wants to “Explore New Territory” in a World “Where a Single Enemy Can Kill You”

Lead designer Ricky Cambier wants to see “what would you really have to do” in such a situation.

We’re drawing ever closer to the release of The Last of Us, Naughty Dog’s new action adventure title that is being as one of the biggest games in the last few years. Lead designer Ricky Cambier recently spoke to Official PlayStation Magazine UK about the emphasis of the gameplay, in a world “where a single enemy can kill you” and thus prompts the questions, “What would you really have to do in this situation?”

Cambier wants players “exploring some new territory” with this. Of course, it meant tweaking some of the design elements. “Making the systems for this game has proven to be hard. and that’s exciting. We’re trying something a little different, something we’re really interested in playing.

“We want you to think: in a world with limited supplies, if you ran into these things, what would you really have to do in this situation, knowing that it’s sneak past or die, kill or be killed? They’re going to kill you, and you have someone who you care about to protect – what are you going to do?”

It’s no secret that a lot of the horror comes from the sound of the creatures like the Infected in the dark. “Sound has always been really important in Naughty Dog games. I think people are surprised by how much info they’re getting through sound”.

“Now you have a world where enemies are really affected by sound, and you are as well. In this world, where a single enemy can kill you, when you hear that enemy, you’re scared – like, you need to move, to go and hide. And [because] these enemies, which people call Clickers, track you with echolocation, they’re using sound to find you, it’s integral in a way people aren’t necessarily used to”.

Cambier also talks about how sound ties in to the overall gameplay mechanics, including the new Listen mode (which allows Joel to see Clickers by the noise they give off – like a sonar of sorts). “We’ve got the crafting, we’ve got new combat, we’ve got Listen mode. We’ve got all these different things that are all going to combine to create this grounded universe that is very lethal, very dangerous”.